The present disclosure relates to a conveyor device for installation in a recording apparatus and an inkjet recording apparatus including the conveyor device.
An inkjet recording apparatus is a commonly known type of recording apparatus. Inkjet recording apparatuses are widely used in machines such as printers, copiers, and multifunction peripherals due to their compactness, low cost, and low operating noise. Inkjet recording apparatuses are broadly classified as being either a line head or a serial head type.
A line head inkjet recording apparatus includes a conveyor device for conveying a recording medium. The conveyor device typically includes a conveyor belt. The conveyor device is located opposite to a recording head and holds a recording medium on the conveyor belt while conveying the recording medium. The recording medium is held on the conveyor belt by using static electricity to attract the recording medium or negative pressure to suck the recording medium.
A conveyor device that creates negative pressure includes a suction section that sucks on the recording medium through the conveyor belt. The conveyor belt has a plurality of suction holes perforated therein. The suction section includes a guide member that supports the recording medium through the conveyor belt. The guide member has through holes that run through the guide member in a thickness direction thereof. The suction section creates negative pressure and thereby sucks air through the suction holes in the conveyor belt and through the through holes in the guide member. Through the above, the recording medium is sucked onto the conveyor belt. Unfortunately, a conveyor device having the configuration described above suffers from the following problem.
Namely, when a recording medium having paper dust attached thereto is conveyed to a position opposite to the recording head, the paper dust may be stirred up by suction air flow (air current) and may become attached to the nozzle orifice. As a consequence, the nozzle orifice may unfortunately become clogged by the attached paper dust. The suction air flow is created by the negative pressure that is used to suck the recording medium onto the conveyor belt. Clogging of the nozzle orifice makes it difficult for the nozzle orifice to eject ink droplets and may result in formation of an image that has white lines along a conveyance direction of the recording medium.
Attachment of paper dust to the nozzle orifice can be prevented by making suction air flow that is created below the recording head smaller. In one example of a serial head inkjet recording apparatus, the guide member does not have through holes at either end in a main scanning direction of a region in which ink droplets are ejected.
The main scanning direction is perpendicular to a recording medium conveyance direction. The above configuration enables suction air flow that is created in the region in which ink droplets are ejected to be made smaller.